Conclusion

Abstract

This book has explored power issues in nursing practice. It has found power embedded in aspects of social structures, made visible through managerial and professional hierarchies, through the mechanisms of the labour market and the division of labour in health care, through health policies and through the organisation of care. Cultural assumptions about gender, age and education, and limited public discourse about the intimacy of care all influence nurses’ and clients’ power and authority. Power is at work in relationships between nurses and clients, nurses and nurses, nurses and other professional groups. Whereas power is made visible through decision making, agenda setting, communication and interaction styles, it is also hidden in the taken-for- granted and is only noticed through the careful observation of change. Differences in the use of physical space, differences in posture and in the non-verbal communication of a sense of trust, differences in discourse have all been noted as indicative of the possibilities of nursing power.